An Outsider Looking In:Alexis de Tocqueville

“A worldwide revolution toward democracy is in full swing amongst us”

(Political Science 565)

Alexis de Tocqueville• 1805-1859• Minor French Aristocrat• Parents almost executed

under Robespierre• Liberal• Active in French politics,

retires after Louis Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1851 coup

• Democracy in America & The Old Regime and the Revolution

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Democracy in America

• 1835 & 1840– July Monarchy (July Revolution of 1830 –

Revolution of 1848)

• Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont sent by French gov’t to study American prisons, but just a pretext for a study of America

• Tocqueville & Beaumont travel US for nine months, starting May 1831

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Key Points

• Developmental analysis• Equality the definitive characteristic of

American life• Reconciliation of religion & liberty• Relationship between law & morality• Self-interest rightly understood

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America in 1831• Jacksonian democracy

– Expand suffrage to all white men (removed property restrictions for voting)

– Militant egalitarianism– Militant racism– Suspicion of institutions of government and business– Expansionism

• Indian Relocation Act of 1830• Industrial Revolution

– Interchangeable parts, urbanization, national roads, early railroads• Slavery• Nation, States and sections

– Jackson a proponent of single national identity and of states’ rights– North and South

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Purpose of the Book

• “The first of the duties currently imposed upon the rulers of our society is to educate democracy, to reawaken, if possible, its beliefs, to purify its morals, to control its actions, gradually to substitute statecraft for its inexperience and awareness of its true interests for its blind instincts, to adapt its government to times and places, and to mold it according to its circumstances and people.” (16)

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The French 19th Century

• 1789: French Revolution: The First Republic• 1804-1815 : Emperor Napoleon • 1815 : Restoration of the Monarchy. • 1830-1848 : Revolution: July Monarchy. • 1848 : Revolution: Second Republic• 1852-1870 : Second Empire under Napoleon

III• 1879: Third Republic

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Method

• The condition of society is normally the result of circumstances, sometimes of laws, more often than not a combination of these two causes; but, once it is established, we can consider it as the fundamental source of most of the laws, customs, and ideas which regulate the conduct of nations; whatever it does not produce, it modifies. (58)

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Method

• The entire man, so to speak, comes full formed in the wrappings of his cradle. (37)– Developmental approach– Origins and early experiences definitive of people

and societies– America is the only society in the Christian world

that is observable from its beginning

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The Tide of History• Toward equality– In 1100, power is determined entirely by birth– But the Church can provide a vehicle for social

mobility to people of all classes, and the growth of Church power introduces paths to power for commoners

– Rising power of money & trade can bring power to all, regardless of birth• Towns & commerce have been used by kings and aristocrats

to undercut one another, but towns and traders have grown in power all the while (12-13)

• Technology, art, etc.

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The Tide of History• “The whole of the book in front of the reader has

been written under the pressure of a kind of religious terror exercised upon the soul of the author by the sight of this irresistible revolution which has progressed over so many centuries, surmounting all obstacles, and which is still advancing today amid the ruins it has caused.” (15)– The will of God– Teleological endpoint of Western civilization is

equality

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Problems in French Society

• “But as we have left behind the social conditions of our ancestors and have cast behind us their institutions, ideas, and customs in one confused heap, what have we put in their place?” (19)– Majesty of royalty gone, but the laws have not

inherited it, people fear and despise authority– Powerful aristocrats who could oppose despotic gov’t

are gone, but nothing is in their place– People of all classes have become selfish and

materialistic

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Problems in French Society

• We have abandoned whatever advatages the old regime possessed without grasping those gains offered by the present state of things; we have destroyed an aristocratic society and, as we complacently stand in the midst of the ruins of the old building, we seem willing to stand there forever. (20)

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Problems in French Society

• In France, the representatives of Christianity and those of liberty and equality have, for historical reasons, become enemies, when they should be one and the same. (21)

• It is not simply, therefore, to satisfy a curiosity, albeit justified, that I have examined America; my aim has been to discover lessons from which we may profit. (23)– In this way, the book is about France as much as it is

America

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Climate and Character

• Contextual, developmental approach• South America, though dangerous, due to its

climate “produced a kind of draining influence which riveted man to the present and rendered him indifferent to the future.”

• In, North America, though, “all was weighty, serious, solemn; it might be said that it had been created to become the realm of the mind just as the other was the home of the senses.” (31)

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What about the natives?

• “Noble savage” stereotype• Brave, generous, honest, barbaric, strong, cruel and not

especially bright.

• Maybe the degenerate remnants of a previously great civilization? (35, App. C, 824)– Complex grammar, but low levels of technology– A product of Tocqueville’s method, which supposes

linear development?• They weren’t really using the land, which was

meant for the Europeans to exploit. (36)

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Common Features of American Colonists, derived from England

• Language• Political heritage of rights and liberty, gov’t by

consent• Religious conflicts result in serious character,

value of intellect & dispute, purified morals• Unsettled, immigrant character of new

colonies means no one is predisposed to accept the superiority of anyone else (39-40)

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Colonists of the South

• Seekers of gold, adventurers without substance or character

• Later, farmers & craftsmen, w/better moral, but more or less identical with English lower classes

• No noble views, no spiritual thought presided over the creation of these new settlements (41)– Entirely mercantile

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Slavery in the Colonies

• Brings dishonor to work; it introduces idleness into society together with ignorance and pride, poverty, and indulgence. It weakens the powers of the mind and dampens human effort. The influence of slavery, together with the English character, explains the customs and social conditions of the South.

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New England Colonists

• Political ideas have permeated all of the United States, and now the world– “A beacon lit upon mountain tops”

• Middle class• Not adventurers, immigrate with families,

good morals• Came to N. America not in search of wealth,

“Their object was the triumph of an idea.” (42-43)

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“Pilgrims”

• Puritanism “almost as much a political theory as a religious doctrine.” (46)– Equality before God– Emphasis on mutually agreed upon covenant for

governance – Laws passed by consent of the community• Along with penal laws “redolent of the narrow bigotry

of sect and religious fanaticism” exist political laws “which, although enacted two hundred years ago, seem still to anticipate the spirit of freedom of our own times.” (52)

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Aspects of Puritan Gov’t

• All in service of religious aims– Voting on gov’t, laws, taxes– Personal responsibility of those in power– Individual freedom– Trial by jury– Universal (male) militia service– Public education– Protection of the poor– Record keeping & administration (51-54)

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Religion, Liberty & Equality

• “The founders of New England were both sectarian fanatics & noble innovators.” (55)– Believing religious law eternal, they saw political laws

as infinitely flexible– Reconciling the spirit of liberty and spirit of religion– The town was organized before the nation, and at the

Revolution the New England concept of equality came to organize the new nation• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are

created equal...”

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Law & Society in America

• I am astonished that commentators old and new have not attributed to the laws of inheritance a greater influence on the progress of human affairs. (60)– Primogeniture keeps wealth & property unified

• A modern corporation has a similar function

– Equal inheritance divides it, diffusing wealth and dividing it among heirs• For T., this is a major cause for the then relative equality of

wealth in the United States as compared to Europe

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Equality of Education

• Almost everyone has access to primary education, almost no one has access to higher education

• Very few born rich enough not to work, have no leisure for study, never develop a taste for it

• Interest primarily in practical knowledge, rather than abstract academic forms of knowledge (65-66)

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Politics and Equality

• “Equality ends up by infiltrating the world of politics as it does everywhere else.” (66-67)

• Two kinds of political equality:– All have equal rights– No one has any• Americans have chosen the former

– Women? Slaves?

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Popular Sovereignty

• At the time of the Revolution, equality was so ingrained in American society that there was no thought of instituting an aristocracy

• “The people reign in the American political world like God over the universe. It is the cause and aim of all things, everything comes from them and everything is absorbed in them.” (71)

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Method

• “The condition of society is normally the result of circumstances, sometimes of laws, more often than not a combination of these two causes; but, once it is established, we can consider it as the fundamental source of most of the laws, customs, and ideas which regulate the conduct of nations; whatever it does not produce, it modifies.” (58)

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“Pilgrims”

• Puritanism “almost as much a political theory as a religious doctrine.” (46)– Equality before God– Emphasis on mutually agreed upon covenant for

governance – Laws passed by consent of the community• Along with penal laws “redolent of the narrow bigotry

of sect and religious fanaticism” exist political laws “which, although enacted two hundred years ago, seem still to anticipate the spirit of freedom of our own times.” (52)

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Aspects of Puritan Gov’t

• All in service of religious aims– Voting on gov’t, laws, taxes– Personal responsibility of those in power– Individual freedom– Trial by jury– Universal (male) militia service– Public education– Protection of the poor– Record keeping & administration (51-54)

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Religion, Liberty & Equality

• “The founders of New England were both sectarian fanatics & noble innovators.” (55)– Believing religious law eternal, they saw political laws

as infinitely flexible– Reconciling the spirit of liberty and spirit of religion– The town was organized before the nation, and at the

Revolution the New England concept of equality came to organize the new nation• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are

created equal...”

31

Law & Society in America

• “I am astonished that commentators old and new have not attributed to the laws of inheritance a greater influence on the progress of human affairs.” (60)– Primogeniture keeps wealth & property unified

• A modern corporation has a similar function

– Equal inheritance divides it, diffusing wealth and dividing it among heirs• For T., this is a major cause for the then relative equality of

wealth in the United States as compared to Europe

32

Politics and Equality

• “Equality ends up by infiltrating the world of politics as it does everywhere else.” (66-67)

• Two kinds of political equality:– All have equal rights– No one has any• Americans have chosen the former

– Women? Slaves?

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Popular Sovereignty

• At the time of the Revolution, equality was so ingrained in American society that there was no thought of instituting an aristocracy– Any remaining

• “The people reign in the American political world like God over the universe. It is the cause and aim of all things, everything comes from them and everything is absorbed in them.” (71)

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Bottom-Up Gov’t

• In America, township state federal gov’t (71)

• Man it is that makes monarchies and founds republics; the township seems a direct gift from the hand of God. But if the town has existed as long as man has, its freedom is uncommon and easily broken– The US is remarkable for the amount of power

allowed municipal & local gov’ts

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• “The strength of free nations resides in the township. Tow institutions are to freedom what primary schools are to knowledge: they bring it within people’s reach and give men the enjoyment and habit of using it for peaceful ends. Without town institutions a nation can establish a free government but has not the spirit of freedom itself.” (73)– Town gov’t trains individuals in self-gov’t, ownership of and

active participation in it– Democracy as a way of being– NE towns best at this– This also makes Americans unbearably touchy about criticism

from foreigners: it is a criticism of their own creation (277)

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Centralization

• Two kinds (103):– Governmental: national issues (national law, war,

foreign relations)• For T., this is very important to accomplish. The nation may

speak with one voice. (104)

– Administrative: Zoning, construction, local issues• For T, this is bad. It diminishes the sense that individuals

govern themselves, reducing civic pride. (104)

• America has highly centralized its government, but has a decentralized administration (103)

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• A central gov’t may administer more efficiently & wisely, but it detracts from a nation’s democratic spirit (107)– “Men must walk in freedom, responsible for their

own behavior.” (108)– The advantages Americans get from decentralized

administration are political, while in France “Subjects still exist but citizens are no more. (110, 111)

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Force of Ideas

• “You will never come across true exercise of power among men, except by the free agreement of their wills; only patriotism or religion can carry, over a long period, the whole body of citizens toward the same goal.” (111)– Decentralization of administration results in

heightened patriotism, and forms a check against a potentially tyrannical central gov’t

– The habit of freedom (114)

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